Field of the Invention
The inventions disclosed herein relate generally to table wager games where chips are used, and, more particularly, to apparatus used for storing such chips having devices associated therewith for reading the hole card of a blackjack dealer during the game of “21.”
Background of the Invention
The game of blackjack, or “21,” is played in gambling casinos, private clubs and homes throughout the world. It is the most widely played table game in the world. A conventional gaming table used for playing blackjack has a plurality of player locations around the outer periphery of the table, and a dealer location located generally opposite the player locations. From the dealer's location, the dealer effects the operation of the game, including dealing of the cards, paying winning wagers and collecting losing wagers.
An important function of the dealer in modern day blackjack is to utilize a hole card reader (“reader”) which is associated with most commercial blackjack tables adjacent the dealer position. One such reader in use today employs a refractive or reflective element located beneath the playing surface of the table which the dealer uses to read a portion of the hole, or down, card in the dealer's dealt hand to determine if the dealer has twenty-one when the up-facing card initially dealt to the dealer is an ace or has a value of ten. One such reader is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,039. In that patent, an “optical” type reader is disclosed in which, in one embodiment, an optical quality prism is associated with a housing. The reader defines an aperture over which is adapted to be placed the portion of the dealer's down card to be read when the dealer's up facing card is an ace or has a value of ten. If the dealer determines that he or she has blackjack upon the initial deal, the hand is called, thus resulting in increased hands per hour.
Heretofore, blackjack hole card readers have been installed in a special cutout created in the blackjack table at a location between the standard chip rack and the player positions. This has required the creation of an aperture in the table surface and felt covering (“layout”) over the table, adding unnecessarily to the time to construct the table and/or retrofit the table to accommodate the hole card reader.
It would be advantageous to integrate the reader, whatever type of reader it may be (e.g. optical or digital), with the chip rack, so that the reader and the chip rack form a substantially integral unit which occupies the location in which the chip rack alone has heretofore been placed.
In addition, chip racks are typically provided with a locking cover to avoid the theft of chips when the chip rack is not being used but contains gambling chips. Heretofore, such covers are attached to the chip rack, or the table, or both, using a single locking mechanism, located centrally of one side edge of the cover. The use of a single locking connection has led to the opportunity to bend one or more corners of the cover away from the chip rack to permit unauthorized access to the contents of the chip rack. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a fortified locking mechanism for chip rack covers.